Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T17:32:42.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lapita Migrants in the Pacific's Oldest Cemetery: Isotopic Analysis at Teouma, Vanuatu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R. Alexander Bentley ,
Hallie R. Buckley ,
Matthew Spriggs ,
Stuart Bedford ,
Chris J. Ottley ,
Geoff M. Nowell ,
Colin G. Macpherson  and
D. Graham Pearson
R. Alexander Bentley
Affiliation:
Evolutionary Anthropology Research Group, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham DH1 3HN, United Kingdom (r.a.bentley@durham.ac.uk)
Hallie R. Buckley
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Otago, PO Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand
Matthew Spriggs
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, AD Hope Building, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Stuart Bedford
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200Australia
Chris J. Ottley
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
Geoff M. Nowell
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
Colin G. Macpherson
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
D. Graham Pearson
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Teouma, an archaeological site on Efate Island, Vanuatu, features the earliest cemetery yet discovered of the colonizers of Remote Oceania, from the late second millennium B.C. In order to investigate potential migration of seventeen human individuals, we measured isotopes of strontium (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen (δ18O), and carbon (δ13C), as well as barium (Ba) and strontium (Sr) concentrations, in tooth enamel from skeletons excavated in the first two field seasons. The majority of individuals cluster with similar isotope and Ba/Sr ratios, consistent with a diet of marine resources supplemented with plants grown on the local basaltic soils. Four outliers, with distinctive 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O, are probably immigrants, three of which were buried in a distinctive position (supine, with the head to the south) with higher Ba/Sr and δ13C, consistent with a terrestrial, nonlocal diet. Among the probable immigrants was a male buried with the crania of three of the locally raised individuals on his chest.

Résumé

Résumé

Teouma, sur l'île d'Efate, Vanuatu, est le site du cimetière le plus tôt pourtant découvert des colonisers d'Océanie à distance, tard deuxième millennium avant J.-C. Nous avons mesuré des isotopes de strontium, de carbone, et d'oxygène aussi bien que des oligoéléments (Ba, Sr) dans l'émail des dents des squelettes excavés dans la première et deuxième saisons de champ, pour étudier la migration potentielle de ces individus. Le faisceau de majorité avec l"isotope semblable et les rapports d"oligoélément, conformés à un régime des ressources marines complétées avec des plantes cultivées sur les sols basaltiques locaux. Quatre adultes, avec 87Sr/86Sr et δ18O distinctifs, sont probablement les immigrés, dont trois ont été enterrés dans une position distinctive (en supination, avec la tête aux sud) avec un plus hauts Ba/Sr et δ13C, conformés à un régime plus terrestre que la majorité. Parmi ces derniers était un mâle enterré avec le crania de trois des individus local-soulevés sur son coffre.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 72 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 645 - 656
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Ambrose, Stanley H., Butler, Brian M., Hanson, Douglas B., Hunter-Anderson, Rosalind L., and Krueger, Harold W. 1997 Stable Isotopic Analysis of Human Diet in the Marianas Archipelago, Western Pacific. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 104:343–361.3.0.CO;2-W>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, Atholl 2006 Polynesian Seafaring and American Horizons: A Response to Jones and Klar. American Antiquity 71:759–763.Google Scholar
Balasse, Marie, Ambrose, Stanley H., Smith, Andrew B., and Douglas Price, T. 2002 The Seasonal Mobility Model for Prehistoric Herders in the South-Western Cape of South Africa Assessed by Isotopic Analysis of Sheep Tooth Enamel. Journal of Archaeological Science 29:917–932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedford, Stuart, Hoffman, Andrew, Kaltal, Marthe, Regenvanu, Ralph, and Shing, Richard 2004 Dentate-Stamped Lapita Reappears on Efate, Central Vanuatu: A Four Decade-Long Drought Is Broken. Archaeology in New Zealand 47:39–49.Google Scholar
Bedford, Stuart, Spriggs, Matthew, and Regenvanu, Ralph 2006 The Teouma Lapita Site and the Early Human Settlement of the Pacific Islands. Antiquity 310:812–828.Google Scholar
Bellwood, Peter 2005 First Farmers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Bellwood, Peter, and Koon, Peter 1989 ‘Lapita Colonists Leave Boats Unburned!’ The Question of Lapita Links with Island Southeast Asia. Antiquity 63:613–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, R. Alexander 2006 Strontium Isotopes from the Earth to the Archaeological Skeleton: A Review. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 13:135–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentley, R. Alexander, Pietrusewsky, Michael, Douglas, Michele T., and Atkinson, Tim C. 2005 Matrilocality during the Prehistoric Transition to Agriculture in Thailand? Antiquity 79:865–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Best, Simon 1987 Long Distance Obsidian Travel and Possible Implications for the Settlement of Fiji. Archaeology in Oceania 22:31–32.Google Scholar
Bowen, Gabriel J., and Wilkinson, Bruce 2002 Spatial Distribution of δ180 in Meteoric Precipitation. Geology 30:315–318.Google Scholar
Budd, Paul, Millard, Andrew, Chenery, Carol, Lucy, Sam, and Roberts, Charlotte 2004 Investigating Population Movement by Stable Isotope Analysis: A Report from Britain. Antiquity 78:127–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buikstra, Jane, and Ubelaker, Douglas H. (editors) 1994 Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey, Fayetteville.Google Scholar
Burton, James H., and Douglas Price, T. 1990 The Ratio of Barium to Strontium as a Paleodietary Indicator of Consumption of Marine Resources. Journal of Archaeological Science 17:547–557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, James H., Douglas Price, T., and Middleton, William D. 1999 Correlation of Bone Ba/Ca and Sr/Ca due to Biological Purification of Calcium. Journal of Archaeological Science 26:609–616.Google Scholar
Burton, James H., Douglas Price, T., Cahue, Laura, and Wright, Lori E. 2003 The Use of Barium and Strontium Abundances in Human Skeletal Tissues to Determine Their Geographic Origins. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13:88–95.Google Scholar
Cabioch, Guy, Banks-Cutler, Kirsten A., Beck, Warren J., Burr, George S., Corrége, T., Lawrence Edwards, R., and Taylor, Frederick W. 2003 Continuous Reef Growth during the Last 23 Cal kyr BP in a Tectonically Active Zone Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific. Quaternary Science Reviews 22:1771–1786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chadwick, Oliver A., Deny, Louis A., Vitousek, Peter M., Huebert, Barry J., and Hedin, Lars O. 1999 Changing Sources of Nutrients during Four Million Years of Ecosystem Development. Nature 397:491–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cochrane, Ethan E. 2007 Migration and Cultural Transmission: Investigating Human Movement as an Explanation for Fijian Ceramic Change. In Cultural Transmission in Archaeology, edited by Michael J. O’Brien. Society for American Archaeology, Washington D.C, in press.Google Scholar
Cox, Murray P. 2005 Indonesian Mitochondrial DNA and Its Opposition to a Pleistocene Era Origin of Proto-Polynesians in Island Southeast Asia. Human Biology 77:179–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, Murray P., and Lahr, Marta M. 2006 Y- Chromosome Diversity Is Inversely Associated with Language Affiliation in Paired Austronesian- and Papuan-Speaking Communities from the Solomon Islands. American Journal of Human Biology 18:35–50.Google Scholar
D’Alessandro, Walter, Federico, Cinzia, Longo, Manfredi, and Parello, Francesco 2004 Oxygen Isotope Composition of Natural Waters in the Mt Etna area. Journal of Hydrology 296:282–299.Google Scholar
D’Angela, D., and Longinelli, Antonio 1990 Oxygen isotopes in living mammal’s bone phosphate: further results. Chemical Geology 86:75–82.Google Scholar
Dickinson, William R. 2006 Temper Sands in Prehistoric Oceanian Pottery:Geotectonics, Sedimentology, Petrography, Provenance. Geological Society of America, Boulder.Google Scholar
Dickinson, William R., and Shutler, Richard 2000 Implications of Petrographic Temper Analysis for Oceanian Prehistory. Journal of World Prehistory 14:203–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elias, Robert W., Hirao, Yoshimitsu, and Patterson, Clair C. 1982 The Circumvention of the Natural Biopurification of Calcium Nutrient Pathways by Atmospheric Inputs of Industrial Lead. Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta 46:2561–2580.Google Scholar
Ericson, Jonathan E. 1985 Strontium Isotope Characterization in the Study of Prehistoric Human Ecology. Journal of Human Evolution 14:503–514.Google Scholar
Galipaud, Jean-Christophe, and Kelly, Mary-Clare Swete 2007 Makué (Aore Island, Santo, Vanuatu):A new Lapita site in the ambit of New Britain obsidian distribution. In Oceanic Explorations: Lapita and Western Pacific Settlement, edited by Stuart Bedford and Sean P. Connaughton. ANU E-Press, Canberra.Google Scholar
Gosden, Chris 1992 Dynamic Traditionalism: Lapita as a Long Term Social Structure. In Poterie Lapita et Peuplement, edited by Jean-Christophe Galipaud, pp. 21–26. ORSTOM, Noumea.Google Scholar
Gonfiantini, Roberto, Roche, Michel-Alain, Olivry, Jean-Claude, Fontes, Jean-Charles, and Zuppi, Gian Maria 2001 The Altitude Effect on the Isotopic Composition of Tropical Rains. Chemical Geology 181:147–167.Google Scholar
Gray, Russell D., and Jordan, Fiona M. 2000 Language Trees Support the Express-Train Sequence of Austronesian Expansion. Nature 405:1052–1055.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, Roger C. 1987 Obsidian Results from the Lapita Sites of the Reef/Santa Cruz Islands. In Archaeometry: Further Australasian Studies, edited by Wal Ambrose and Jeanine M.J. Mummery, pp. 239–249. Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Green, Roger C. 2003 The Lapita Horizon and Traditions—Signature for One Set of Oceanic Migrations. In Pacific Archaeology: Assessments and Prospects, edited by Christophe Sand, pp. 95–120. Les Cahiers de l’Archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie 15, Nouméa.Google Scholar
Hather, Jon G. 1992 The Archaeobotany of Subsistence in the Pacific. World Archaeology 24:70–81.Google Scholar
Hoppe, Kathryn A., Koch, Paul L., and Furutani, T. T. 2003 Assessing the Preservation of Biogenic Strontium in Fossil Bones and Tooth Enamel. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13:20–28.Google Scholar
Mark, Horrocks, and Bedford, Stuart 2005 Microfossil Analysis of Lapita Deposits in Vanuatu Reveals Introduced Araceae Aroids. Archaeology in Oceania 40:67–74.Google Scholar
Jones, Terry L., and Klar, Kathryn A. 2005 Diffusionism Reconsidered: Linguistic and Archaeological Evidence for Prehistoric Polynesian Contact with Southern California. American Antiquity 70:457–484.Google Scholar
Kirch, Patrick V. 2000 On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands Before European Contact. University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Kirch, Patrick V., and Green, Roger C. 2001 Hawaiki: Ancestral Polynesia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Koch, Paul L., Tuross, Noreen, and Fogel, Marilyn L. 1997 The Effects of Sample Treatment and Diagenesis on the Isotopic Integrity of Carbonate in Biogenic Hydroxylapatite. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:417–429.Google Scholar
Kohn, Matthew J. 1996 Predicting Animal δ18O: Accounting for Diet and Physiological Adaptation. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 60:4811–4829.Google Scholar
Matisoo-Smith, Elizabeth, and Robins, Judith H. 2004 Origins and Dispersals of Pacific Peoples: Evidence from mtDNA Phylogenies of the Pacific Rat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 101:9167–9172.Google Scholar
Müller, Wolfgang, Fricke, Henry, Halliday, Alex N., McCulloch, Malcolm T., and Wartho, Jo-Anne 2003 Origin and Migration of the Alpine Iceman. Science 302:862–866.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, Stephen, and Richards, Martin 2001 Slow Boat to Melanesia? Nature 410:166–167.Google Scholar
Pawley, Andrew 1981 Melanesian Diversity and Polynesian Homogeneity: A Unified Explanation for Language. In Studies in Pacific Languages and Cultures in Honour of Bruce Biggs, edited by Jim Hollyman and Andrew Pawley, pp. 269–309. Linguistic Society of New Zealand, Auckland.Google Scholar
Pichler, Thomas, Heikoop, Jeffrey M., Risk, Michael J., Veizer, Jan, and Campbell, Iain L. 2000 Hydrothermal Effects on Isotope and Trace Element Records in Modern Reef Corals: An Introductory Study of Porites lobata from Tutum Bay, Ambitle Island, Papua New Guinea. Palaios 15:225–234.Google Scholar
Pietrusewsky, Michael 1996 The Physical Anthropology of Polynesia: A Review of Some Cranial and Skeletal Studies. In Oceanic Culture History, edited by Janet Davidson, Geoffrey Irwin, B. Foss Leach, Andrew Pawley, and Dorothy Brown, pp. 343–345. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Monographs, Dunedin.Google Scholar
Poage, Michael A., and Page Chamberlain, C. 2001 Empirical Relationships between Elevation and the Stable Isotope Composition of Precipitation and Surface Waters: Considerations for Studies of Paleoelevation Change. American Journal of Science 301:1–15.Google Scholar
Raos, Alison M., and Crawford, Anthony J. 2004 Basalts from the Efate Island Group, Central Section of the Vanuatu Arc, SW Pacific: Geochemistry and Petrogenesis. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 134:35–56.Google Scholar
Sand, Christophe, and Sheppard, Peter J. 2000 Long Distance Prehistoric Obsidian Imports in New Caledonia: Characteristics and Meaning. Comptes- Ren-dus de I’Académie des Sciences de Paris:Sciences et Terre et des Planètes 331:235–243.Google Scholar
Scholl, Martha A., Ingebritsen, Steven E., Janik, Cathy J., and Kauahikaua, James P. 1996 Use of Precipitation and Ground Water Isotopes to Interpret Regional Hydrology on a Tropical Volcanic Island: Kilauea Volcano Area, Hawaii. Water Resources Research 32:3525–3237.Google Scholar
Scholl, Martha A., Gingerich, Stephen B., and Tribble, Gordon W. 2002 The Influence of Microclimates and Fog on Stable Isotope Signatures Used in Interpretation of Regional Hydrology: East Maui, Hawaii. Journal of Hydrology 264:170–184.Google Scholar
Sharp, Zachary D., Atudorei, V., and Furrer, H. 2000 The Effect of Diagenesis on Oxygen Isotope Ratios of Biogenic Phosphates. American Journal of Science 300:222–237.Google Scholar
Sillen, Andrew, Hall, Grant, Richardson, Stephen, and Armstrong, Richard 1998 87Sr/86Sr Ratios in Modern and Fossil Food-Webs of the Sterkfontein Valley: Implications for Early Hominid Habitat Preference. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 62:2463–2478.Google Scholar
Spriggs, Matthew 1997 The Island Melanesians. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Summerhayes, Glenn 2000 Lapita Interaction. Terra Australis 15. Pandanus, Canberra.Google Scholar
Summerhayes, Glenn 2003 Modelling Differences between Lapita Obsidian and Pottery Distribution Patterns in the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. In Pacific Archaeology: Assessments and Prospects, edited by Christophe Sand, pp. 135–145. Les Cahiers de l’Archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie 15, Nouméa.Google Scholar
Toulkeridis, Theonlos, Podwojewski, Pascal, and Clauer, Norbert 1998 Tracing the Source of Gypsum in New Caledonian Soils by REE Contents and S-Sr Isotopic Compositions. Chemical Geology 145:61–71.Google Scholar
Trejaut, Jean A., Kivisild, Toomas, Loo, Jun Hun, Lee, Chien Liang, He, Chun Lin, Hsu, Chia Jung, Li, Zheng Yuan, and Lin, Marie 2005 Traces of Archaic Mitochondrial Lineages Persist in Austronesian-Speaking Formosan Populations. PloS Biology 3(8):e247.Google Scholar
Trickett, Mark A., Budd, Paul, Montgomery, Janet, and Evans, Jane 2003 An Assessment of Solubility Profiling as a Decontamination Procedure for the 87Sr/86Sr Analysis of Archaeological Human Skeletal Tissue. Applied Geochemistry 18:653–658.Google Scholar
Yen, Doug E. 1974 The Sweet Potato and Oceania: An Essay in Ethnobotany. Bishop Museum Bulletin 236, Honolulu.Google Scholar